Space is quickly becoming a 21st-century tourist trap. Case in point: SpaceX is teaming up with Geometric Energy Corporation, a Canadian research and development firm, to launch what’s essentially a souped-up digital billboard into orbit, according to a weekend Business Insider report.
In an interview with the outlet, GEC co-founder and CEO Samuel Reid said the company is developing a satellite called a CubeSat that’s equipped with a selfie-stick and a pixelated display screen on one side to show advertisements, logos, and other art.
The CubeSat will hitch a ride on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, which will release it into orbit before the rocket reaches the moon. Once there, the selfie stick will capture footage of the display screen and livestream it on YouTube or Twitch for anyone to watch. According to Reid, the CubeSat is slated for an early 2022 release.
Once it’s up and running, you’ll be able to purchase tokens to claim designated pixels on the display, determine what those pixels look like, and set how long the ad will run. There are five tokens in total: Beta for the X coordinate, Rhoe for the Y coordinate, Gamma for the brightness, Kappa for the color, and XI for the amount of time.
Corporations, artists, and anyone else who’s interested can buy tokens using cryptocurrencies, and GEC hopes to be able to support payments in dogecoin in the future. Because what’s a more fitting use for a meme cryptocurrency than buying space ads?
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“I’m trying to achieve something that can democratize access to space and allow for decentralized participation,” Reid told Business Insider. “Hopefully, people don’t waste money on something inappropriate, insulting or offensive.”
I mean, this is the internet we’re talking about. I give it about 24 hours before someone spends good money just to make a dick pic orbit the Earth.
Speaking of money, Reid told Business Insider he couldn’t reveal how much each CubeSat token would cost. But given the amount of time, effort, and money spent just to get the billboard up there in the first place, it’s safe to assume that ad space won’t be cheap. SpaceX and GEC did not immediately return Gizmodo’s request for comment on the matter.
This isn’t the first joint venture between the two. In May, GEC announced that it paid SpaceX entirely in dogecoin to secure a spot for its satellite aboard an upcoming lunar mission. In short: dogecoin is literally going to the moon. The mission, fittingly called Doge-1, is scheduled to take off in early 2022.
